Skip to main content

South Africa to upgrade public transport

Speaking at the launch of South Africa’s 2013 Transport Month, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters pledged to spend more than US$500 million on planning, building and operating integrated public transport networks in more than thirteen cities in the country. The major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town have already constructed over 20 kilometres of dedicated bus lanes. Both cities will expand operations to carry up to 100 thousand passengers a day on each system, while the bus rapid transport system in Joh
October 2, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Speaking at the launch of South Africa’s 2013 Transport Month, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters pledged to spend more than US$500 million on planning, building and operating integrated public transport networks in more than thirteen cities in the country.

The major cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town have already constructed over 20 kilometres of dedicated bus lanes. Both cities will expand operations to carry up to 100 thousand passengers a day on each system, while the bus rapid transport system in Johannesburg is also set to expand. A second phase is to open in the next two weeks, providing a link between hospitals, universities and sports facilities in the city.

"One of the instruments that we are looking at is the intermodal automated ticketing system that would then allow for integration of the different transport and networks," said the transport minister.

Peters praised the country’s road network, but admitted that maintenance of the roads does not come cheap, saying the country needs to spend US$2.9 million a year on just maintaining them, but at the moment can only spend US$2.9 million on both maintenance and new construction

The minister also said that from 2015, the government will be looking at upgrading passenger trains through the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), and US$1.2 million will also be pumped into rehabilitating coaches and the signalling system.

Related Content

  • Successful start of e-tolling in South Africa
    December 13, 2013
    This month saw the start of e-tolling on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) in South Africa, one of the largest electronic toll collection systems for open road tolling in the world, following an announcement by the country’s Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, in November. Kapsch TrafficCom reports that the number of active accounts has been consistently rising following the commencement of the e-toll project in Gauteng, on 3 December. Kapsch anticipates that this trend will continue. Kapsc
  • Huawei opens door to new opportunities in transport & logistics
    December 18, 2024
    By addressing the four key elements of a transportation network’s composition with a state-of-the-art digital solution, Huawei is bringing significant performance uplifts to all aspects of railway operations
  • ITS South Africa sees a perfect storm as spending is squeezed
    August 10, 2016
    The argument for cost-benefit analysis of ITS has never been so strong, according to Dr Paul Vorster, CEO of ITS South Africa, as the industry finds itself “in the eye of a perfect storm. There are escalating demands for solutions to strategic challenges such as cutting congestion, and improving and expanding mobility by moving people out of private vehicles and into public and non-motorised transport.
  • Gothenburg’s year of congestion charging
    April 9, 2014
    A year after it went live, Colin Sowman examines the technology used for Gothenburg’s congestion charging system and the effect the scheme has had on commuters. When it comes to long-term planning, the Scandinavians take some beating.The West Swedish Agreement is a case in point. Introduced in 2009, the Agreement runs through to around 2027 and aims to create an attractive, sustainable and growing region, and over that timescale the number of journeys is expected to increase by a third. Therefore the Agreem